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The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Wizard of Oz is a classic Hollywood musical released by MGM in 1939. It was directed by Victor Fleming and was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture. The songs were written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, and one of them, "Over the Rainbow," won the Oscar for "Best Song of the Year." The movie is based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, though it departs a great deal from the source material. Cast *Judy Garland: Dorothy Gale *Frank Morgan: Professor Marvel, The Doorman, Cabby, Guard, and Wizard of Oz *Ray Bolger: Hunk, Scarecrow *Bert Lahr: Zeke, Cowardly Lion *Jack Haley: Hickory, Tin Woodman *Billie Burke: Glinda the Good Witch of the North *Margaret Hamilton: Miss Gulch, Wicked Witch of the West *Charley Grapewin: Uncle Henry *Clara Blandick: Auntie Em *Terry: Toto *The Singer Midgets: Munchkins Crew *Art director: William Horning *Choreographer: Bobby Connolly *Cinematographer: Harold Rosson *Makeup: Jack Dawn *Sketch artist: Jack Martin Smith *Special effects: A. Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie *Vocal arrangements: Roger Edens Background Mervyn LeRoy produced the film, with Arthur Freed as assistant producer. Its genesis was complex, employing multiple directors and screenwriters. Fleming had the director's credit, though George Cukor, Norman Taurog, Richard Thorpe, and King Vidor also worked on the project. (Thorpe's footage was unused and reshot; Vidor directed the Kansas scenes, completing the movie after Fleming left to direct Gone With the Wind.) An early plan to have Busby Berkeley direct the musical numbers never panned out. Noel Langley is credited with adapting the original book, and Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf are credited as the authors of the screenplay — though more than a dozen other individuals, including Herman Mankiewicz, made contributions. The file containing the multiple versions of the film's script has been preserved; it is five feet thick. Jack Dawn designed the makeup for the characters. Makeup man Jack Young had the daily job of turning Margaret Hamilton into the Wicked Witch, while Charles Schram was responsible for the Cowardly Lion. For some scenes, so many actors and extras needed makeup that the studio issued an open call to the local craft unions for free-lance hairdressers and makeup men. Special effects for the movie were created by Buddy Gillespie and filmed by Max Fabian. Warren Newcombe created shots involving matte paintings for backgrounds, using techniques he originated. Sixty-five sets were used; the most complex was the Munchkinland set. As many as 150 painters may have worked on the film. Six separate horses were dyed for the Horse of a Different Color sequence. Betty Danko, Hamilton's stunt double, was nearly killed in an accident on the set; Hamilton suffered facial burns in another incident. Ray Bolger wore a suit protected with asbestos for the scene in which the Witch sets the Scarecrow on fire. Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the Tin Woodman, but endured a severe allergic reaction to the aluminum makeup the character wore; he had to be replaced by Jack Haley. The film was edited by Fleming and Blanche Sewell; Fleming worked in the editing room in the evening, after directing GWTW during the day. MGM studio records placed the cost of making the movie at $2,769,230.30 (in 1939 dollars) — half a million dollars over its budget. Production occurred between 12 October 1938 and 16 March 1939. (The movie had originally been scheduled to begin filming in the Spring of 1938 and be completed by the end of that year; but delays in virtually every aspect of the production made that original schedule impossible.) The movie's release date was 25 August 1939. The film won two Academy Awards in 1940: in addition to Harburg and Arlen's award for Best Song, Herbert Stothart won the award for Best Original Score. The movie was nominated in four other categories too, losing the Best Picture Oscar to Gone With the Wind. The film did not make a profit until it was re-released, ten years after its original showing. The first television broadcast of the film took place in 1956 on the CBS network; the audience of this initial broadcast has been calculated at over 44,000,000 viewers. Annual broadcasts of the film followed through the ensuing decades, leading to the film's reputation as a classic. The film has been restored using new technology more than once, including a major effort for a 1998 theatrical re-release and the 2009 release of the film on blue-ray DVD. References * Hugh Fordin. M-G-M's Greatest Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit. Cambridge, MA, Da Capo Press, 1996. * Aljean Harmetz. The Making of the Wizard of Oz: The Movie Magic and Studio Power in the Prime of MGM and the Miracle of Production #1060. New York, Knopf, 1977. * Paul Nathanson. Over the Rainbow: The Wizard of Oz as a Secular Myth of America. Albany, NY, State University of New York Press, 1991. * Jay Scarfone and William Stillman. The Wizardry of Oz: The Artistry and Magic of the 1939 M-G-M Classic. New York, Random House, 1999. External links * IMDB * The Judy Room Spotlight on The Wizard of Oz Wizard Of Oz 1939